BENGALURU: The latest Economic Survey has declared New Delhi as the country’s startup capital, taking into account the number of startups that were added between 2019 and 2021, but Karnataka asserts that Namma Bengaluru is numero uno when it comes to the start-up ecosystem and unicorns.
Dismayed over the Centre’s report that only took into account the number of start-ups registered — 5,000 in the national capital compared to 4,514 in Bengaluru between April 2019 and December 2021 — the State Government and also experts feel that a number of other parameters that help to grow a city as a global startup hub need to be taken into consideration.
Some are also of the view that it is an unfair comparison, as the NCR region is much larger compared to Bengaluru city. Bengaluru is home to the highest number of unicorns and is compared with cities like New York, Berlin and Tel Aviv. Of the 85 unicorns in India, 34 are based in Bengaluru and 25 of them emerged between April 2019 and December 2021, sources in the government said, backing up the argument that Bengaluru is indeed the startup capital.
‘B’luru, innovation gateway to India’
The unicorns have a total valuation of about $150 billion and 55% of that is from Bengaluru based start-ups, they said and added that India has seen four Decacorns (companies with a valuation of $10 billion and above, so far) — Flipkart, Paytm, Byju’s and Swiggy, of which, 75% (Flipkart, Swiggy and Byju’s ) are f rom Bengaluru. Prashanth Prakash, chairman, Startup Vision Group, Government of Karnataka, stressed that it is not about the numbers, but the ecosystem.
Talent, diversity of start-ups and capital that the eco-system attracts are the real measures of what is the startup capital and there is no other city that matches Bengaluru on these three parameters, he said. Over a period, Bengaluru startups have come to be known to be the most professional and have carried the tradition of good governance and integrity that was started in the city by Infosys, he added.
There is also a need to look at the emerging areas like artificial intelligence (AI), space technology, FinTech, EduTech and others in which Bengaluru has a leadership position compared to others, he told The New Indian Express. The Karnataka government has launched the start-up policy in 2015 and Bengaluru has received global recognition as the start-up hub.
It is ranked 10th as per Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2021 by Startup Blink and ranked 23rd among global cities as per the Global Start-up Ecosystem Ranking report of 2021. Karnataka IT&BT Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan said the startup city of Bengaluru is the innovation gateway to India, which is the fastest-growing large economy in the world.